uncultivated land. To all this he agreed; and then I
gave him, as a token of friendship, a pannikin of coarse powder, two
iron spoons, and two yards of coarse printed calico. He looked rather
saucily at these articles, for he had just received a barrel containing
18 lbs. of powder, 24 yards of calico, and two bottles of brandy, from
Senhor Pascoal the Pombeiro. Other presents were added the next day,
but we gave nothing more; and the Pombeiros informed me that it was
necessary to give largely, because they are accompanied by slaves and
carriers who are no great friends to their masters; and if they did not
secure the friendship of these petty chiefs, many slaves and their loads
might be stolen while passing through the forests. It is thus a sort of
black-mail that these insignificant chiefs levy; and the native traders,
in paying, do so simply as a bribe to keep them honest. This chief was
a man of no power, but in our former ignorance of this he plagued us a
whole day in passing.

Finding the progress of Senhor Pascoal and the other Pombeiros
excessively slow, I resolved to forego his company to Cabango after I
had delivered to him some letters to be sent back to Cassange. I went
forward with the intention of finishing my writing, and leaving a packet
for him at some village. We ascended the eastern acclivity that bounds
the Cassange valley, which has rather a gradual ascent up from the
Quango, and we found that the last ascent, though apparently not quite
so high as that at Tala Mungongo, is actually much higher. The top is
about 5000 feet above the level of the sea, and the bottom 3500 feet;
water boiling on the heights at 202 Deg., the thermometer in the air
showing 96 Deg.; and at the bottom at 205 Deg., the air being 75 Deg. We
had now gained the summit of the western subtending ridge, and began to
descend toward the centre of the country, hoping soon to get out of the
Chiboque territory, which, when we ascended from the Cassange valley,
we had entered; but, on the 19th of April, the intermittent, which had
begun on the 16th of March, was changed into an extremely severe attack
of rheumatic fever. This was brought on by being obliged to sleep on an
extensive plain covered with water. The rain poured down incessantly,
but we formed our beds by dragging up the earth into oblong mounds,
somewhat like graves in a country church-yard, and then placing grass
upon them. The rain continuing to deluge us, we were unable to